community

I’m pleased to announce that after several years, my memoir Getting to Heaven by Going through Hell is finally ready for publication. I just approved the final manuscript and am just waiting for confirmation from my publisher. Once I have a link, I’ll post it here.

In the meantime, I thought I’d post the Dedication:

There are a lot of people who are the reason I wrote this story. Certainly those most important in my life are my wife, Mona, and my three kids, Alexa, Victoria, and Chase. They are the inspiration for everything I do and this book is no different. We, as the story will demonstrate, have been through great pain, fear and doubt. But those same experiences have brought us great joy and strength. To them, I dedicate this book. I really wrote it to tell our story, not mine.

Yet, there are many others to whom I owe a great debt. Many of them I either never met or never knew by their names. They are the “angels” that I mention throughout the story; the men and women who stepped forward when they were needed to do what was good and right. Whether it was Dr. Lang, who was so pivotal in the events of my life, or the unknown people who seemingly appeared, did what God had put them in place to do, and then just as quickly vanished, never to be seen again. These were all angels in our lives and it is to them that I also dedicate this book; the people who took action, who refused to sit by and do nothing, the ones who needed no recognition, no glory. In fact, many likely never got anything for their services other than the joy of knowing they made a difference; that one day, they were in the right spot and at the right time and jumped in to help someone else. These are the angels in our lives that I now strive to emulate. These people, placed so carefully in our lives at just the right time and in just the right circumstance, I will never be able to repay. It is to the angels here on Earth that I dedicate this book.

But in keeping with this effort to repay what is owed, a portion of all proceeds from this book will go to various charities whose sole purpose is to be an angel to others in need.